World region
Graphic-design styles from East Asia
Styles that took shape in East Asia, alone or together with other regions. Stylogeny describes 51 of them. The earliest began in antiquity, the latest in 2018. Of these, 35 are still in use.
The 51 styles
Oldest first. Each has its own page: its design choices, where it comes from, and real works.
- Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)Tibetan Buddhist and Bön woodblock printing, from the first printed Kangyur (1410, cut in China) and the 15th-century presses of Gungthang to the great printing houses of Narthang, Derge and Lhasa.
- Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua)A kind of colour woodblock printing begun in late-Ming Nanjing, made so that a print looks like a brush painting.
- Taishō Roman & Lyrical IllustrationThe lyrical illustration (jojōga) of late-Meiji to early-Shōwa Japan, led by Takehisa Yumeji: willowy, large-eyed women in kimono drawn with an Art Nouveau contour, set among camellias and kimono patterns and lettered by hand.
- MavoTokyo's anarchist avant-garde, founded in July 1923 by Murayama Tomoyoshi, back from a year in Berlin, with four former Futurists, and its magazine MAVO (seven issues, July 1924 to August 1925).
- Nippon Kōbō & Tōhōsha Photo-Propaganda Magazines (NIPPON & FRONT)Luxury photo-propaganda magazines that imperial Japan sent abroad, 1934–45.
- Dazibao (Big-Character Posters)Handwritten wall posters in large brush characters that turned the walls of Mao-era China into a public forum for criticism, denunciation and, at the Democracy Wall, dissent.
- Contemporary Chinese Book Design ('Most Beautiful Books of China')Chinese book design since 2003, when Shanghai founded the yearly 'Most Beautiful Books of China' award, whose winners go on to Leipzig.
- Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)Graphic design by Seoul's small, self-run studios, which from about 2005 chose to stay small.
- Danmaku Bullet-Comment OverlayThe bullet-comment layer of Japanese and Chinese video sites, begun on Niconico in December 2006 and taken up by AcFun and Bilibili in 2008–2009.
- Hong Kong Protest Art (Umbrella Movement to the 2019–20 Protests)The graphics of Hong Kong's democracy protests, from the 2014 Umbrella Movement to the national security law of 2020, in two linked media.
- VTuber Avatar and Stream GraphicsThe graphic kit of virtual YouTubers, streamers who perform behind an animated anime-style character instead of their own face.
- Lo-fi Anime AestheticThe look of YouTube's 24/7 lo-fi hip hop streams.
The design choices they share
The choices these styles make more often than the 359 styles in the atlas as a whole, most telling first.
- Rotated & vertical settingin 29 of 51
- Brush & pen calligraphyin 29 of 51
- Gradientsin 21 of 51
- Dynamic asymmetryin 23 of 51
- Nostalgic & retroin 18 of 51
- Generous white spacein 23 of 51
- Emblems & badgesin 28 of 51
- Calm & contemplativein 16 of 51